Table 3
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 462.
Lexical stress of three-syllable simple words.
| Three-syllable verbs | Three-syllable nouns |
| If the last syllable of a three-syllable verb 1) contains a short voweland ends with not more than one consonant, that syllable will be unstressed, and S will be placed on the preceding (penultimate syllable): de'termine, en'counter. 2) contains a long vowelor a diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant, that final syllable will be stressed: enter'tain, under'stand. | If the final syllable of a three-syllable simple nouncontains 1) a long vowelor a diphthongand/or ends with more than one consonant, the stress will usually be placed on the first syllable: 'intellect, 'marigold. 2) a short voweland the middle syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one consonant, the first syllable will be stressed: 'quantity, 'cinema. 3) contains a short vowelor [ǝu] and if the penultimate syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if it ends with more than one syllable, that penultimate syllable will be stressed: po'tato, di'saster. |
Lexical stress of words of four or more syllables.It can be stated in a most general way that in words of four and more syllables the stress is placed on the antepenultimate syllable (third from the end), e'mergency, hi'storical, ca'lamity.
Stress in compounds and phrases. Compoundsare composed of more than one
root morpheme but function grammatically and/or semantically as a single word [Gimson 2001:228]. Compounds may be written as one word, e.g. dishwasher, or with a hyphen, e.g. user-friendly, or with a space between the two elements, e.g. season ticket. There is no systematic practice in the choice among these three ways, although there is a tendency for compounds with primary stress on the first element to be written as one word or with a hyphen, and for those with the primary stress on the final element to be written as two words [Gimson 2001:228].
When an adjective modifies the following noun, they make a phrase,and typically, they have a late stress,i.e. the second word has more stress than the first, e.g. ¸polished 'wood, ¸interesting 'book, hard 'work, ¸difficult 'course. There are some guidelines for defining stress placement in compoundsand phrases[Kreidler 1997:144-154; Gimson 2001: 228-231; Wells 2000:163]:
Compoundstypically have early stress,the first element is more stressed than the
second: 'firewood, 'library book, 'running shoes, 'homework, correspondence course.
Early stressis usual in compounds in which:
• the two elements are written as one word: 'headline, 'laptop, 'lifestyle;
• expressions consisting of NOUN+NOUN: 'picture frame, 'child abuse, 'theme park, 'tape measure.
• expressions consisting of A(djective)+NOUN, N's+N, N+V, N+Ving: 'batting average, 'bull'seye, 'crow'snest, 'landfill, 'ear-splitting, 'job-sharing,
• phrasal and prepositional verbs used as nouns:' burn-out, 'lay-off, 'melt-down, 'setup. LATE STRESSis usual in the following compoundsas if they were phrases:
• when the first element is the material or ingredient out of which the thing is made: cherry 'pie, pork 'chop, pee 'pudding, panana 'split, except for CAKE, JUICE and WATER: these have normal early stress: 'carrot cake, 'orange juice, 'mineral water.
• the first element is a proper name: ¸Euston 'Road, the ¸Hilton 'Hotel, ¸Oxford 'Circus, except for STREET: these have normal early stress: 'Oxford Street.
• the first element names a place or time: ¸city 'centre, ¸town 'hall, ¸summer 'holidays, ¸Easter'bunny, ¸Christmas 'pudding, ¸morning 'paper, ¸office 'party, ¸kitchen 'sink.
• when both N1 andN2 are equally referential: acid 'rain, aroma 'therapy, fridge-
'freezer;
• when N1 is a value: 100per cent 'effort, dollar 'bill, pound 'note.
Compound adjectivesdivide fairly evenly between those with initial primary stress: 'seasick, 'hen-pecked, 'ladylike, and those with final stress: deep-'seated, rent-'free, skin- 'deep, sky-'blue.
Sometimes the same sequence of words can make a phraseor a compound.Here
the lateor early stressdistinguishes them:
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| Guidelines to English word stress placement | | | Table 4 |